Consumers now have until January 31 to select the channels or bouquets they want to pay for. Starting February 1, they will be migrated to the new plans. DPOs have been instructed to reach out to subscribers by January 21.

Cable and direct-to-home (DTH) operators will have to speed up the process of getting consumers to make their choices as Trai has asked for weekly progress reports. This stems from Trai's new tariff order and broadcast sector regulations, which go into effect on December 29. The new regime allows consumers to select and pay only for the channels that they want to watch.

All DPOs were supposed to obtain channel choices and migrate subscribers by Saturday. However, progress has been slow. ET had reported December 18 on the possibility of a blackout because of this, following which Trai called a meeting of all stakeholders.

"There was a real possibility of a blackout as DPOs are yet to announce their bouquets and get consumers' requests," said a senior Trai official. "Thus, a need of a transition plan was felt for a smooth implementation of the new regulatory framework. Chairman was very clear from day one that there will be no extension this time, but there will not be a disruption of services either."

Under the new plan, broadcasters and distributor platforms have time till January 31 for the transition. All existing packs, plans and bouquets will continue uninterrupted and service providers cannot disconnect any users on account of the new framework until then, Trai has said.

The regulator held meetings with all stakeholders including consumer advocacy groups in the past four-six weeks before agreeing upon the migration plan.

"Many DPOs have informed that there are close to 150 million TV homes in the country and collecting choices and implementing them is a nightmare," said the person cited above. "Everyone's system will crash. So essentially, what Trai has agreed to is a continuation of older packages till January 31 but quality of service (QoS) and other provisions of the new tariff order come into effect from Saturday night." He added that on the midnight of January 31, DPOs will have to discontinue older packages.

A cable company executive told ET that the All India Digital Cable Federation (AIDCF) will have its next meeting on January 7 to get an update from its members and to speed up migration. Trai will hold a review meeting on January 20 with stakeholders.

A DPO is an umbrella term used for cable and DTH operators. While DTH players directly take TV broadcasters' signals to consumers via satellite, cable TV companies are multi-system operators (such as Hathway, Den, Siti Networks) that provide channels to various local cable operators (LCOs), which offer last-mile connectivity.